Overseas Security Advisory Council

The Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) was created in 1985 under the Federal Advisory Committee Act to promote security cooperation between American private-sector interests worldwide and the U.S. Department of State. OSAC has developed into an enormously successful joint venture, with U.S. companies and organizations receiving the tools they need to cope with security issues in a foreign environment. OSAC is a free service to U.S.-based or incorporated private sector organizations with overseas operations.

OSAC promotes effective cooperation by working to assist the U.S. private sector to better anticipate security issues, including identifying and tracking threats, particularly those targeting private sector personnel, facilities, investments, interests, and intellectual property. In addition to providing timely and actionable security information, OSAC also aids in the development of new markets with accurate assessments of current and future security environments. Ensuring that critical security information is shared with those who need it, when they need it, OSAC is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to answer constituents’ questions with expert analysis of rapidly evolving security challenges overseas.

Through the use of its web site, www.OSAC.gov, OSAC offers its constituents the latest in safety and security-related information, public announcements, Consular Affairs bulletins, travel advisories, significant anniversary dates, terrorist groups profiles, country crime and safety reports, special topic reports, foreign press reports, and much more. The OSAC information exchange mechanism also includes a staff of international security research specialists that is dedicated solely to serving the U.S. private sector. Additionally, OSAC has a network of Country Councils around the world that brings together U.S. embassies and consulates with the local U.S. community to share security information.